Hi, everyone! Today I have the honor of sharing with you an inspirational and very talented author, John Fioravanti.
4WillsPublishing is kicking off John's Reflections blog tour today to promote his book, Reflections: Inspirational Quotes & Interpretations. I have read this book and highly recommend it! I have also read his series, The Genesis Saga, and can recommend that as well. Like I said, he is an awesome author!
GIVEAWAYS: The author is giving away (3) $5 Amazon Gift Cards during this tour! For your chance to win, all you have to do is leave a comment below as well as leaving a comment on the author's 4WillsPub tour page. GOOD LUCK!
And now, I'm handing it over to John to share with you his method to writing this book...
Good day to you! I extend my appreciation to my host who
generously agreed to have me as a guest, and to the good folks at 4 Wills
Publishing who organized this tour.
Why I Write Reflections and How I Approach Quotes
The honest answer to the first part is that I enjoy thinking
beyond the surface meaning of quotes that I encounter. Back in the fall of 1969
I sat in my first Philosophy class and I remember feeling intellectually
bewildered. Why is this professor talking in circles? The bewilderment gave way
to frustration and then to a determination to figure out what was going on in
that class. I knew I wasn’t stupid, but I certainly felt that way! I had been
introduced to a way of thinking that was new to me and my brain was being
forced to blaze new pathways of thought. Turned on by the challenge, I read
carefully and listened intently in class.
During that same first semester at university, I took a
Religious Studies course from the man who became my favorite teacher. He
emphasized that we should not focus on finding answers to the great questions
of life but to concentrate on understanding the questions themselves. My
immediate reaction was that he was pulling our legs. He wasn’t, and gradually I
came to understand that unless we have a thorough understanding of the question
or the problem, we can’t possibly know where to begin looking for answers.
I took a lot of Philosophy and Theology courses in
university along with my major in History. These three disciplines allowed me
to value deep thinking and gave me some practical application along the way.
More importantly, they taught me to read and listen with an open mind. Too
often we think that our culture or our religion has a monopoly on the truth
about the meaning of life. That is intellectually arrogant and an attitude that
stunts our growth. If nothing else, Philosophy teaches us to question what we
see and what we can’t see.
I became acquainted with inspirational quotes when I joined
the Governing Board of Rave Reviews Book Club. Nonnie Jules, our President,
wrote a daily message to her board members and began each with an inspirational
quote. After she noticed my interest in these quotes, she asked me to take over
the task of selecting one each day for the Board. I always hunted for quotes
that would invite me to dive deeper than the surface meaning. Eventually, I
created my own blog posts based on inspirational quotes.
Thinking deeply about a quote is not easy and often it can
take me two to three days to figure out what I want to say about it. The first
thing I do is look for a biography of the author of the quote. Can I learn
anything about this person’s background and circumstances that provide some
context? Also, where did the quote come from? Was it plucked from their
writings or speeches? This information gives me a brief preface for the
reflection as well as some direction for my thinking.
The next thing I do is check the quote for keywords that
might need to be defined. Sometimes, I find that a particular word has several
different meanings and that forces me to explore which meaning the author
intended. Once I have settled on a meaning that makes sense to me, I have my
basic interpretation of the words.
The last step is to search for existential meaning. How do
these words have meaning for my life? Is the author trying to teach me
something about how to think, to act, and to live well? I always assume that
there is something valuable to learn that I can apply to my own life.
Therefore, these reflections are mine and they are for me. They can be seen as
spiritual journeys through my own life. What about my readers? I hope that
readers will read my words and stop to think about how the quote or my
ruminations cause them to reflect upon their own spiritual journeys.
The Reflections
Book Trailer:
An Amazon Review:
Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2019
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
This is a book that I
will refer back to often! The author put together 50 short chapters beginning
each chapter with a quote from a famous or not so famous person. Then he
follows the quote with how it impacted him in his life. As I read, I reflected
on what the quote meant to me as well. This is the perfect book to go to for
daily inspiration or introspection. He begins the book with these two lines:
"Inspiration is a gift. Being one who has the ability to inspire others is
an even great gift." Wow! That says it all. So with quotes from Helen
Keller, Steve Jobs, Maya Angelou, Walt Whitman and so many more, there is
something for everyone. I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking
inspiration or even guidance. There is nothing more powerful than one's own
personal experience.
- by Jan Sikes
AUTHOR BIO:
John Fioravanti is a retired secondary school
educator who completed his thirty-five-year career in the classroom in June
2008. Throughout his career, John focused on developing research, analysis, and
essay writing skills in his History classroom. This led to the publication of
his first non-fiction work for student use, Getting
It Right in History Class. A
Personal Journey to the Heart of Teaching
is his second non-fiction work; it attempts to crystallize the struggles,
accomplishments, and setbacks experienced in more than three decades of effort
to achieve excellence in his chosen field.
John’s first work of fiction is Passion
& Struggle, Book One of The Genesis Saga,
and is set within Kenneth Tam’s Equations universe (Iceberg Publishing). He
claims that, after two non-fiction books, he’s having the time of his life
bringing new stories and characters to life! Book Two is Treachery
& Triumph.
At present, John lives in Waterloo, Ontario
with Anne, his bride of forty-six years. They have three children and three
grandchildren. In December of 2013, John and Anne founded Fiora
Books for the express purpose of
publishing John’s books.
JOHN’S LINKS:
Thank you for supporting this author and his tour. To follow along with the rest of the tour, please drop in on the author's 4WillsPub tour page.
If you'd like to schedule your own 4WillsPub blog tour to promote your book(s), you may do so by clicking HERE.
